August 24, Missoula

Today we decided to explore downtown Missoula. They have a very nice park right in the middle of town. This is where the carousel is located and they have a big tent to hold outdoor events. The carousel was hand built by the people of Missoula. There is also a great big climbing gym beside it. There is a cache there but we decided that it wouldn’t be good for two people without children to be hanging out there.

Today the downtown business association was holding their weekly lunch in the park series. Every Wednesday some of the downtown restaurants set up in the tent and cook. They also have a musical act. The food was fantastic and the music was great. This was a very enjoyable way to spend the day.

Also at the park was a man made kayaking course. The rocks and stuff had been cemented into place to make some great rapids. There were five young people who had their kayaks there today and we got some great pictures of them playing in the rapids.

We then headed to Les Schawb to get some new tires for the Jeep, we figured we saved about $150 a tire, plus because we were down for two weeks, we also saved the taxes, probably about $800 all together. We then were off to Home Depot to get some blinds for the big windows on both sides of the motor home. So we got a good deal on the blinds but now we had to put them up. This proved harder to do than we thought. There is not a lot of room between the covering and the wall. Len and I cursed a swore a few times and we got them up. They don’t work quite right but we will get them figured out. I think the hardest part is that they were very long and trying to get the cords figured out will have to wait until next year or we may just have to bite the bullet and get official RV blinds. They cost about twice as much but may be less hassle in the long run.

August 23, Museum of the Americas

Well today we packed up again and headed towards Missoula, we had booked into the KOA down there via the internet. On the way out of town we stopped in at the Miricle of the Americas museum. It is kind of difficult to describe this museum.

The Museum contains everything from the walking-plow to walking on the moon. It was started by Gil & Joanne Mangles in 1981, I am sure it started out as a personal collection that kept growing and expanding over the owner’s entire property.

This place had everything from political memorabilia, movie props, motorcycles, snowmobiles, helicopters, farm implements, historical buildings, military items and airplanes. There was even a full sized prop from the wizard of oz

They even had a complete diner inside with booths and the little juke boxes that you could play.

You could probably spend an entire week and still not see everything.

After the museum we headed south toMissoula . It was a little hairy getting into the campground, on its website is stated that GPS’s didn’t have the road right. It would tell you to turn the wrong way, so we copied down the directions and managed to get to the right spot. The campground is in the middle of a residential area. There is a trailer park all around the outskirts of the park. It is a very big park but nicely laid out and the staff was very friendly. Even though it is in a residential park it was very quiet. The lots we stayed in were a pull through and there were lots of trees for shade. We had to go and get some groceries, so we headed out to explore the area. Did a little bit of shopping and came back to the campsite to relax and do some more reading. Sometimes the best part of a vacation is sitting back in your lawn chair, sipping a cool drink and catching up on your reading.

August 22, Polson Town Museum

We have been taking it easy during our time in Polson. We did so much exploring while we were in the parks that we have done much more reading during this part of our tripT

Today we did go to the local museum. We had to wait a bit to get in because the volunteer was a little late in getting there. When we got in unfortunately the same volunteer decided to follow me around and give me a guided tour. Len luckily managed to get away but I got cornered. It might have been okay but she kept trashing the local natives and their culture and how the poor natives would have been poor and still living in teepees if it wasn’t for the white man taking over their lives and making it better for them. I finally managed to get away; she was called to take an admission from some other patrons who were coming to see the museum. The museum itself was very interesting. It gave a very good overview of the entire community and its history.

The weirdest thing we saw however was a life size bull that had a history in Polson, he used to be in all the town parades. So when he died they decided to stuff him and put him in the museum.

There was another museum in town but we decided to check it out on our way out of town.

August 21, Polson Montana

Well today we got up to do a day of geocaching. We started off towards the lake and found that they were doing jet boat racing and having a barbeque contest at the Kwataqnuk resort.

The jet boats were really quite neat, the person driving them had to be get into the bottom of the boat and then the top of the boat was put on by a crane, then the whole boat was lifted into the water by the crane. There were two boats and they raced around the buoys about 5 times. They seemed to be doing time trials but the announcer really wasn’t giving us a lot of details.

We watched for a bit then headed off to the barbecue competition. There was probably about 6 or 7 groups cooking everything from chicken, pork and beef. You could buy dishes and some groups were giving away free samples. The group from Les Schwab did a beef brisket with a blue cheese sauce that was to die for. I don’t normally like blue cheese but this was delicious. After doing some sampling we headed out on to the road to do some caches.

The first one we went to involved a long walk down to a view point over a dam. The view was spectacular but we did not have any luck finding the micro. I later found out that it was indeed missing but we got some great pictures. We then did one in a nearby field that was called a hamster cache. Supposedly there are little hamsters hiding out in caches all over the country. So we had a great day of exploring, eating and discovering new sporting activities.

August 20 Polson, Montana

So after our days exploring the Glacier Park, it was time to head onto the next location. The Montana State Fair was going on in Kalispell on the weekend so we couldn’t find a campground in there, and even if we had decided to go we weren’t sure what to do with Lindy. So we stopped in Kalispell to hit Costco, to pick up some vegetables and Len wanted to see if they had any more antigravity chair because he was jealous because I had picked one up earlier in the season and he was making do with his regular camp chair. Alas there were no chairs to be found. We were also going to stop at Fat Boy Burgers for lunch. This is the chain that President Obama eats at in DC and they have a new one in Montana. I guy I work with said that the burgers are actually very good, it is not all hype but when you are driving a motor home, pulling a jeep, there are not a lot of places that you can park, so no burgers for us but we did manage to maneuver ourselves out onto the highway and we headed out of town, South around Flathead Lake and down to Polson.

We had stayed in Polson about four years ago when we were on a trip for the Brewery. We stayed at the local KOA campground which is on the hillside overlooking the lake. When we got there we discovered that they were turning the campground into a luxury motor coach camp. Currently it is still a campground as well, but you can buy a permanent spot for your 40 foot home on wheels, spend the summer in Montana and the winters down south. The lots were very nicely landscaped and almost all of them had outdoor kitchen and living spaces. Very, very fancy spaces that go from $180,000 to $280,000, eventually they will be turning the whole campground into sites; right now however it is a combination of both. Obviously the economy must not be too bad in this area. They were in phase one and there was about 30 sites sold, with more on the way.

We did not stay in the fancy smancy area, however we did splurge and got a spot with a nice deck that we could sit on and look out on the lake and Len could watch the planes landing at the airport. We got all settled in and then sat back on the deck and enjoyed the beautiful view. I had bought a hair colouring and decided that this was the perfect time to get rid of all that grey. The showers at this spot were amazing. All tile, lots of hot water and great shower heads.

We then took Lindy for a walk to the little dog park, it was great for her to do her business but she couldn’t stop sniffing. So we find a better spot for her to learn how to fetch the ball. She still hasn’t quite got the hang of it. She chases the ball and then runs away from you instead of back to you. She thinks it a big game of tag. We finished off the evening with a great meal on the deck, watching the sunset over the lake.